Pours a pleasant coppery golden colour, very clear and bright. Weight is solid but fluid enough. Head is a persistent, bubbly mass of offwhite, leaving coarse streaks down the glass. Stacks of carbonation. More than you'd expect.

Rusty grain notes on the nose. Slight sweetness with some mild apple characters coming through. A little citrus suggests hops, but it's mostly earthy and based on the grainy malt characters. Decent enough.

Taste starts clean and crisp with a hint of metallic bite. This mellows into a more generic grain body, with some cleanness. Sweetness continues through to the back, where there's a hint of meatiness, and (unfortunately) a hint of PoR, which doesn't do it any favours.

Feel is a bit light, but quite clean.

Really quite drinkable. It's a bit dull for the most part, but it has its place, even in the already relatively generic James Squire lineup.

Appearance: pours a clear copper colour (funnily enough) with a fluffy head that drops to a solid cap. Limited lacing.

Aroma: not a bad aroma for a mid-strength. Some earthen hops with citrus and some floral notes. Quite nice, with a touch of funk behind it.

Taste: unfortunately the flavour profile drops away a bit here. Has the same problem as - funnily enough - your average English mid bitter. Not enough body, not enough flavour. What is there is more centralised on the heavy earthen character, with some floral hops.

Aftertaste: really drops away here - only the earthen character seems to hang about, and is a touch awkward.

Mouth feel: too light in body for an English bitter - really needs more body to carry the flavours more strongly. The carbonation is okay though.

Overall: a drinkable but overall unimpressive attempt at an English mid bitter. There are some decent flavours across the profile, but either the ABV or the body needs to be a lot stronger to bring the flavour out better. Also, the price is the same as the 5% beers... so no thank you.

A - This pours up a nice frothy head, off white in colour, the clarity of the beer is great. Beer is orange and amber in colour.

S - After the pour I got a nice hop aroma coming from the beer, earthy, citrusy, melon like notes. Malts come through with a caramel sweetness.

T - Taste isn't as good as the smell, malts come through with a bit of a husky, astringent note, bit of soap flavour, little bit of sweetness, hops are a singular lemon note that doesn't really assert any bitterness, kind of fizzes out like soda water. After taste is a metallic note reminiscent of many Australian macro beers.

M - Very thin, mineral water like mouthfeel, like someone has gone overboard with the water treatment, finishes reasonably dry, carbonation is excessive.

O - Not a great example of an English Bitter, besides the Porter none of the James Squire beers are really up my alley.

The newest in the James Squire line: The Constable Copper Ale follows on from the shameful joke of a beer that was 150 Lashes, which I accurately described as "weak, boring, ineffectual..." among other things. This time however I'm genuinely excited that Mr. Squire has bought his A game because soon after cracking open the bottle a decent aroma of hops wafted up and gave me a sense of delight at what may come.

S: As mentioned in the preamble there is a delightful hop presence upfront. Fruity, floral with a pleasing melon ester and hint of grapefruit. Underlying this is the expected toffee malt base which should provide a nice sweet foil to the bitter hop finish.

T: And then reality hits - a 3.4% ABV brew is never going to be as flavoursome as a full-strength brew, but why this really bites home is because where there was much promise in the aroma the flavour is a bit bland. Yes, hops are there; fruity, floral with melon ester and hint of grapefruit. Yes, malt is there; toffee-like and palatable. But it's all rather mundane and bland, much like the eponymous Constable this beer is named for.

D: In fact that is probably the most apt description of this brew: a bit like soda water... with hops and malt. Which is disappointing because there is at heart a really top beer wanting to be unleashed and if this was a full 5% ABV I believe that beer would be a solid performer, alas Malt Shovel have disappointed again, whatever happened to these guys?

With the name,style and ABV I'm definitely not expecting much in fact I've already written this beer off as James Squires feeble attempt to reach out to the mid strength market micro fringe dwellers but wanting to know if I'm right lets me give it time of day unlike its namesake,and on pour its a bland very light see through copper hue with a wispy one finger head and no lacing,the nose is better than look with a dominant floral hoppiness mixed with gooseberries and pineapple and the hops are very NZ,the mouthfeel is just over light bodied and overcarbonated with subtle tastes of citrus,gooseberries and a barley sweetness that tries to compete with the bitter finish of floral grassy hops and overall just like a copper you want to avoid this at all costs and would not be out of place right next to the taps of Hahn super mid or Carlton mid but obviously a better option but not by much cheers.

The advertising blurb goes...."The Constable Copper Ale is brewed in the style of an English Ordinary Bitter. Pale, Munich and Crystal malts join Super Alpha, Topaz, UK Fuggles and Galaxy hops in a flavoursome, refreshing ale that we think beer drinkers will love."

Bought a 6 pack with high hopes that I had finally found a beer made in Australia that would taste like an English bitter (good English Beer is very expensive in OZ).

Poured into a pint glass as you do with an English style bitter, hmmm there appears to be some beer missing....Visually it has a nice copper colour, not too much froth on top in keeping with the style, promising so far... but the taste?

Should have read the ad before I bought the beer; Munich malts? Australian Topaz and Galaxy hops?Seriously if there is a Fuggle in this brew the Topaz and Galaxy hops have well and truly beat it into submission. The hop profile is wrong and just another example of an over aroma and dry hopped Australian ale.

And as an Australian ale its just like the rest of the James Squires stable, if served very cold it is passable.